Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Rain comin'...???

Rain is in the forecast for Thursday. With the NCAA division II tennis tournament taking place at Memorial Park and possible weather delays, I'm not sure how matches there will be affected. Regardless, this week is devoid of many intriguing matchups.

The 5.0 division has just one match scheduled. Craig Bobo's Memorial Park team faces a Met squad that seems to be on the ropes lately. The match will be played indoors. The Met should have enough talent to right the ship this week.

In 4.5 there's really only one match that features legitimate playoff contenders features the Yutts and Ssshhhwings. Neither team has that much strength in the singles. A slimmer Peter Rothe ventured onto the singles court last week and had a comfortable win, but using him in singles will weaken the doubles. I feel like Ssshhhwing is a bit stronger in the doubles, but if James Bui and Daniel Morales can play well, the Yutts could have a chance in the singles. Still, I'll pick Ssshhhwings in a tight one.

In 4.0 there's a battle for second place and a probable playoff berth from Division as SAP plays the Rolido Boys. SAP has added doubles superstar Jason Urtis, fresh off a weekend of intense fitness training at the ping pong table. The Rolido Boys have a talented big guy in Michael Martinez. He and Greg Moran have been a virtual lock at line one doubles, so SAP may have to take 3 of the other four lines.

Rice is just 1-2, but showed last week in their loss to the Hurricanes that they do still have some talent on that roster. They match up with the second place Smokers in a do-or-die battle.

Unofficially, it looks as though the playoff formats will be the same as last year.

In other news, the NOHO league is now in full swing. Red Benzon's team finished up their match with Jimmy Kilshaw's crew last night and pulled out a 3-2 win as Kilshaw had to default line 3 doubles. Juan Lopez, who I've been told was once a Chilean Davis cupper, won a hard fought match with Red Benzon. Jody Deluca crushed Chantz Chanthanalay at one singles and Walter Fortenberry and Carter Ullrich surprisingly drubbed Alan Teague and David Huffman. Craig Bobo and and Ben Whitsett continued to show they are an elite 4.5 team in an easy win over Huynh and Kilshaw.

Not sure what the previous poster's definition of strong singles is, but the Yutts singles players are not it since they lost Rich Ryu. Morales and Bui are quality players, but not league strong players.

Urtis, please email me your training techniques. Maybe post something on YouTube for the rest of us who are striving to reach your level.

Urtis did freak out the Southern team (Laffayette, LA) at Nationals last year when he hit all his practice serves underhanded (pretty funny)...not only is he in perfect shape and has flawless technigue but he plays mind games with his oppontents and is a tactical genius. It's about time he got his due on this blog.

Richard I've seen some of his regimen and it is frightening. I will explain as Urtis will never reveal his secrets.

I saw him training at the MET one day (ok granted it's air conditioned) doing hardcore corner to corner (inside out forehand/inside out backhand) drills as two guys (clearly one is too slow) fed balls to him. Not only that, but Freeman himself was pacing in the backcourt behind Urtis spouting obscenities everytime Urtis missed, which was not often mind you. That might have been warmup I'm not sure...

For those of you who don't believe me at all, I'll sneak a camera in there next time. I'll put it on youtube and post the link. DY

Screwed up and posted on the last thread instead of this one. So here it is again. Urtis is yet another example of how Freeman, from here on known as Captain February (great recruiter terrible captain), can screw up a team. If he wouldnt have been trying to hide Urtis from a DQ and played him more, we would have easily won Nationals. To think that he is in singles shape is downright scary! I heard he had to pull a Jordan and drop out of tennis for a while because of a similar problem. I'm just glad he left Captain February in the dust!

For some odd reason the Rolido Boys captain split up Greg and Mike tonight. Mike was paired with a newcomer (justin) who tried but was not equipped to play. Greg played with Harold (captain) and he lost to the might Urtis and the Kyle "who is the guy" Kray.

I know we are all beneath the Met 4.0 team...(as are most NORMAL 4.5 teams)..but pretty poor captaining by Harold gave an easy 4-1 victory to SAP tonight.

BTW, Freeman is Mr. February AND Mr. Coke...as he ALWAYS finds a ringer/newcomer during this event.

He does an excellent job and is subtle at what he does. Props to the Yoda of Houston Adult tennis recruiting.

I just heard that the Yutts beat Ssshhhwing 3-2. Not many details, but apparently James Bui beat Alfredo Tellez, Miguel Morales beat Peter Rothe and Alain Tran/Daniel Morales beat someone (might have been Lemp/Wagner).

Hall/Judson beat the Dugas's at line 1 doubles and Monte Lindloff and Ki beat Rick Boeche and Mark Durio at line 2 doubles. SSSwwwing just can't win many singles matches. MIA--Justin Benoit and Flad Patterson???? If not MIA, SSSwwwing probably could have taken all three doubles. Can't win the league without singles!!!

Looks like there is a nice match up this week between Mob Squad and Sswing. It was 3-2 last time in MSs favor. They have improved their doubles by bringing in Herb so I expect them to do even better this time.